ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Public smoking bans linked with rapid fall in preterm births, child hospital visits for asthma
• Antidepressants during pregnancy linked to preterm birth
• Online gaming augments players' social lives, study shows
• People unwilling to swallow soda tax, size restrictions
• Smoke-free air policies seem to protect the heart
• Obesity, diabetes pre-programmed in womb? Fetal response to glucose associated with mother's insulin sensitivity
• Peaches inhibit breast cancer metastasis in mice
• Baseball Pitchers, Volleyball Spikers Have Something in Common: Similar Shoulder, Elbow Injuries
• Moving public assistance payments from cash to plastic cuts crime, research shows

Public smoking bans linked with rapid fall in preterm births, child hospital visits for asthma Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:22 PM PDT The introduction of laws banning smoking in public places and workplaces in North America and Europe has been quickly followed by large drops in rates of preterm births and children attending hospital for asthma, according to the first systematic review and meta-analysis examining the effect of smoke-free legislation on child health.

Antidepressants during pregnancy linked to preterm birth Posted: 27 Mar 2014 11:01 AM PDT Antidepressant medications taken by pregnant women are associated with increased rates of preterm birth, research shows. This finding reinforces the notion that antidepressants should not be used by pregnant women in the absence of a clear need that cannot be met through alternative approaches, say researchers.

Online gaming augments players' social lives, study shows Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT Online social behavior isn't replacing offline social behavior in the gaming community, new research shows. Instead, online gaming is expanding players' social lives. "Gamers aren't the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes, they're highly social people," says the lead author of a paper. "This won't be a surprise to the gaming community, but it's worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm."

People unwilling to swallow soda tax, size restrictions Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT Those hoping to dilute Americans' taste for soda, energy drinks, sweetened tea, and other sugary beverages should take their quest to school lunchrooms rather than legislative chambers, according to a recent study by media and health policy experts. Soda taxes and beverage portion size restrictions were unpalatable to the 1,319 U.S. adults questioned in a fall 2012 survey as part of a study.

Smoke-free air policies seem to protect the heart Posted: 27 Mar 2014 07:08 AM PDT Policies prohibiting tobacco smoking in workplaces and other public spaces may substantially improve public health by reducing heart disease and death, according to a new study on the impact of Michigan's statewide smoking ban. In their study, researchers found a statistically significant reduction in cardiovascular disease and death with related hospitalizations decreasing by 2.03 percent from 65,329 to 64,002.

Obesity, diabetes pre-programmed in womb? Fetal response to glucose associated with mother's insulin sensitivity Posted: 25 Mar 2014 04:08 PM PDT Direct evidence has been shown that fetal brain response to a dose of sugar given orally to its mother is associated with the mother's insulin sensitivity. This may indicate that the risk of subsequent obesity and diabetes may be pre-programmed in the womb. The authors conclude: "Lower maternal insulin sensitivity is associated with slower fetal brain responses. These findings provide the first evidence of a direct effect of maternal metabolism on fetal brain activity and suggest that central insulin resistance may be programmed during fetal development."

Peaches inhibit breast cancer metastasis in mice Posted: 25 Mar 2014 01:44 PM PDT Treatments with peach extract inhibit breast cancer metastasis in mice, new research demonstrates. Scientists say that the mixture of phenolic compounds present in the peach extract are responsible for the inhibition of metastasis, according to the study. This work builds upon previous work released a few years ago, which showed that peach and plum polyphenols selectively killed aggressive breast cancer cells.

Baseball Pitchers, Volleyball Spikers Have Something in Common: Similar Shoulder, Elbow Injuries Posted: 24 Mar 2014 03:14 PM PDT Baseball and volleyball players share the similar arm injuries due to overuse of their shoulders and elbows. In both circumstances, the shoulder muscles generate and transmit an incredible amount of energy and serve as the transition point where built up energy is transferred from the rest of the body down the arm. After too many pitches or serves, these shoulder muscles get overworked and tend to cause the shoulder to tighten up.

Moving public assistance payments from cash to plastic cuts crime, research shows Posted: 24 Mar 2014 11:54 AM PDT Counties that change their delivery of public assistance benefits from paper checks to an electronic benefit transfer system -- using debit cards -- see their street crimes drop significantly, according to a study. The study is the first to empirically examine whether the introduction of an EBT system, which reduces the amount of cash circulated on the streets, will disrupt criminal activities that rely on the ease and relative anonymity of cash transactions.

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